Did you know that Lincoln Cathedral once stood taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza, Nettleton is home to a very unusual war memorial, and a Victorian workhouse boss from Holbeach faced a manslaughter charge after he treated an inmate's scabies?

These are some of the bizarre yet fascinating tales in a new book by Andrew Beardmore called Lincolnshire Unusual & Quirky.

Here, Mr Beardmore has kindly produced a list of 12 wacky and quirky facts from the book, and 10 'Quirk Alerts' - strange or interesting historical snippets that are interspersed throughout the book.

Wacky/Quirky Facts:

1. In 1845, a horse called Cure-All walked 120 miles from Healing in the north-east of the county to Aintree, won the Grand National as a rank outsider, and then promptly walked the 120 miles back – to a hero's welcome.

2. Coningsby’s church clock, with a dial of 16.5ft (5m), is the largest single-handed clock in the world – while Appleby’s church clock is the smallest, as it has no face at all. It merely strikes the hour on a big bell.

Coningsby's church clock is definitely unusual

3. The stalls at Boston’s St Botolph’s church contain a carving of a bear playing the organ, which is thought to be the earliest English carving of organ-playing – and presumably the first ever of an ursine musician, too.

4. Glentham was home to an old medieval custom that involved a virgin in mourning garb, while Caistor was home to another custom which required the presence of the local vicar, a whip, and 30 pieces of silver.

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5.Michael Solomon (d.1796), the landlord of the Angel and Royal Inn at Grantham, left forty shillings in his will for a sermon to be preached in the parish church, every year, warning of the perils of drunkenness.

6. In 1926, an American woman bought Haverholme Priory, had it dismantled, intending to rebuild it back in America. Alas, she then died in a train crash, and the stones, which had been shipped to Liverpool, were used to build new docks there.

7. The Winceby Stone, three miles east of Horncastle, is also known locally as the Devil's Stone. Legend has it that if moved, the Devil will escape from underneath it.

8. The Norman incarnation of Lincoln Cathedral was destroyed by a freak earthquake in 1185.

9. None of the three arches of Crowland's 14th century triangular bridge span water any more, after the River Welland and two of its tributaries were later re-routed! Meanwhile, Crowland Abbey issued the first-ever peal of bells in 986.

Trinity Bridge at Crowland

10. Alvingham has two churches in one churchyard.

11. Nettleton is home to the only First World War memorial that is, in fact, a bungalow.

12. Samuel Barnardiston of Great Coates was the source of the name "Roundhead", when Queen Henrietta spotted his haircut and named him thus.

Quirk Alerts:

Das BootIn 1886, excavations for a gas-works at Brigg turned up a spectacular Bronze Age boat dating to c.1000 B.C. It had been carved out of an enormous oak-tree and was almost 50ft long, as well as 4-5ft wide and 3-4ft deep, and was thought to have been capable of carrying up to 50 men. Alas, any chance of modern tree-ring dating is not possible, as the boat was sent to Hull Museum…which was destroyed by German bombs during World War II.

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Grassed-On VillaIn the early 20th century at Norton Disney, Abbey Field on Potter Hill was something of a mystery because nothing ever grew there but weeds. After a few years of persistent crop failure, the farmer decided to dig down to see if he could solve the mystery – and solve the mystery he most certainly did – because he found the remains of a fortified Roman villa.

Gainsborough’s TrinityGainsborough is home to three significant pre-Conquest events. The first occurred in 868 when King Alfred was married in Gainsborough to his queen, Ealhswitha.

The second occurred on December 25th, 1013, when Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, was proclaimed as King of England in Gainsborough, after defeating the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelred, and Gainsborough briefly became England’s capital as King Sweyn took up high office in Gainsborough Castle.

However, the third event occurred less than six weeks later, when King Sweyn was thrown from his horse in Gainsborough, and died there on February 3, 1014.

Shortly afterwards, Gainsborough ceased to be the capital of England as Æthelred returned to reclaim the throne.

Lincolnshire Unusual & Quirky is a fascinating read

Lincoln’s Top GizaWhen Lincoln Cathedral was rebuilt in the late 13th and early 14th century, the 271ft tower was topped by an oak and lead spire that rose to a height of 525ft, making it the tallest structure in the world at that time. The building it surpassed was the Great Pyramid of Giza – which had held the record for almost 4,000 years!

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Right of WrayIn the 18th century, Sir Cecil Wray built Fillingham Castle and enclosed both house and park with a wall – which somewhat controversially blocked a public right of way, and which was a particular favourite route of Squire Whichcot, MP, who lived at nearby Harpswell.

Seriously irked at the loss of his favourite route, the squire made a point of visiting the new wall once a year in his coach-and-four, bringing with him his labourers who would proceed to pull down part of the wall.

He would then drive through the breach, across the park and back again, before disappearing off home – at which point, Sir Cecil Wray would repair the damaged wall…and again the following year, and the year after that…and so on until Squire Whichcot eventually passed away. Thereafter, the wall suffered no further breaches and the right of way lapsed.

A Hideous Happening in Holbeach (only read if you have a strong stomach)…In April 1882 the master of Holbeach Workhouse, Walter Brydges Waterer, was accused of the manslaughter of a workhouse inmate, 22-year-old Thomas Bingham.

Poor Thomas suffered from a skin disease, and therefore to treat him, Waterer had left the man in a sulphur-burning cabinet, which was used as a treatment for what was known as “the itch”, or scabies.

The patient stood naked inside the cabinet with his head poking out of the top. The sulphur was then placed on an iron tray at the bottom of the cabinet, beneath a grating, and ignited by a piece of hot iron.

On this fateful day, though, Waterer had left Bingham encased in the cabinet and disappeared to attend to a matter elsewhere, but then completely forgot about his patient.

Others were eventually alerted by Bingham’s cries for help, and he was released…but on stepping out of the cabinet, he had been so hideously burned that skin and flesh appeared to just slide away from his body. Thomas Bingham died a few hours later. Waterer was found not guilty of manslaughter.

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Doubled-up CrossDeeping St James is home to a rather large base of a former medieval 14th century cross. However, in the 19th century, it was used as a stone lock-up for housing local ne’er-do-wells found guilty of petty crime. They would be incarcerated in the lock-up overnight until appearing before the local magistrates the next morning.

The Deeping St James lock up

Painting by BombersDuring the Second World War, a bomb fell near to the church at Pickworth and the explosion dislodged much plasterwork. However, when the plaster was cleared away, a number of medieval paintings were found which had been hidden behind the plaster for centuries. The paintings are of immense historical interest and have been dated to around 1380.

The Cleethorpes GhostIn 1896, multiple eyewitnesses in Cleethorpes witnessed the ghost of a lady carrying an umbrella and wearing a long veil, but with holes cut out for her ghostly eyes. For some time, she was allegedly seen every night and apparently had a penchant for moaning, too, which scared the living daylights out of some.

However, it was later recognised that the ghost was actually a lady from Hull who had been painfully disfigured by a gas explosion. She had come to Cleethorpes for rest and recuperation but had covered herself from head to toe in a grey veil to hide her disfigurement.

Truth or Gallows HumourThe gallows at Melton Ross were supposedly erected by King James I to end a centuries-old dispute between the de Ros and Tyrwhit families.

The Melton Ross Gallows

However, an alternative legend suggests that a group of boys were playing “the hanging game” - where each “player” takes a turn at hanging themselves from a tree, and the “winner” is the one who hangs by his neck for the longest time before signalling the others to “loose the noose” (well, a good game does need a good catchphrase).

Anyway, the story goes that when one particular boy took his turn, the Devil suddenly ran past disguised as a three-legged hare. The other boys ran after the hare and in their excitement forgot all about their poor playmate who was found dead on their return.